“When I got sick, I felt I had no chance – the difficulty of making ends meet turned into huge debts.”

“When I got sick, I felt I had no chance – the difficulty of making ends meet turned into huge debts.”

Sometimes trouble comes in bundles and Ziona the lucky singers did not shine. The task of running a business and supporting 6 children while divorcing and dealing with illness seemed impossible.

The daycare of Ziona, a warm and devoted family woman from Ariel, 56, is familiar to all. For 23 years, she has lovingly raised generations of happy children. Ziona and her ex-husband have six children, three of whom still live with her in her home.

Ziona says: “It was always hard for me to understand how to manage the money, but I always managed to manage, maintain the house and give my children and the children in the daycare the best.”

About a year and a half ago, she was unlucky and two events that came together changed her life completely: Ziona and her husband divorced and a routine examination revealed breast cancer in her body that forced her to start aggressive treatments immediately.

Following the discovery of the disease, Ziona was unable to continue working regularly and debts of tens of thousands of shekels to the bank and other entities began to pile up and swell. Ziona was also obligated to pay her ex-wife for his share of the house she still owned, so that she could continue to operate the daycare center, which had already gained a reputation in the area.

Just before an economic collapse, Ziona realized that there was no choice – she had to stop the turbulence she was in and turn to the paamonim for help.

Ziona was added by the organization’s staff to a unique program that includes group meetings for support and learning and individual accompaniment sessions to operate a personal and tailored economic recovery plan.

Ziona was determined to do whatever it took to improve her situation, and invested a great deal of effort, over a long period of time, in order to reduce her expenses and begin to conduct herself in a calculated manner.

Month-to-month hard work yielded results and the situation began to improve, Ziona found a way to continue operating the afternoon care alongside the treatments, the paamonim helped her spread out her debts to the various bodies in a way that would allow her some breathing room during the difficult period, and together with Paamonim she embarked on a fundraising campaign so that she could manage in the short term until the treatments were completed.

Ziona Zimri
Last February, Ziona’s escort ended with great success and the good news is that her health is also improving. Dekel, a Paamonim volunteer who accompanied Ziona closely over many months, summed up the results of Ziona’s accompaniment: “This week we met for a summary meeting of the process. From a situation of a large overdraft and many debts – Ziona has reached a state of plus in her bank account and has a monthly standing order for savings!
In the meeting, we talked about what Ziona should do with the money you save, how to use the money in the best way – reduce a mortgage or create pension savings. Just don’t believe it. Ziona took Paamonim’s personal accompaniment seriously and with the determination and humor that characterize her so much – and achieved amazing achievements, while battling cancer.”

As Passover approaches, paamonim are launching a fundraising campaign to help rescue many more Israeli families from debt and financial distress.
This Passover – you can help families get out of slavery to true economic freedom!
To donate to help families:

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To donate, call 1800-35-10-12

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